


Wealth of His Bite

by matan4il



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Inspired by Fanart, M/M, inspired by Dasoni, young aaron, young robert, young robron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 15:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13907055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matan4il/pseuds/matan4il
Summary: A (belated) birthday gift for Tumblr's Dasoni.This story is inspired by her fantastic work, a short (incomplete?)comics about young Robron.(you'll notice this is not an exact retelling. For one small example, I chose to have them standing much closer to the barn's entrance rather than move there)





	Wealth of His Bite

**Author's Note:**

> For the lovely Oni, may you continue to inspire and be inspired in this fandom, add your talented as well as light hearted touch to everything, continue to bring people joy and I hope that fandom can in turn give you back that sense of happiness ten times fold! I've enjoyed every single one of our talks so for myself, I hope to get to have many more with you. Happy (very belated) Birthday!

"It's called a kiss, Aaron!" Robert doesn't mean to raise his voice, he really doesn't. All he wants is just to go on sucking face with Aaron and the pitch of his voice climbing with the frustration that he's been feeling is just not conductive to that. Sometimes, he really doesn't get the way this guy makes him behave. Anyone else, and Robert couldn't have given a stuff what it's called or whether he's allowed to slip his tongue in or not. He'd simply charm whoever it was into it. But Aaron makes him want things that aren't meaningless or limited to awkward, desperate groping in the dark. For some reason, this one infuriating guy makes him hope Aaron will properly want the same things he does.

They've been something or other, the two of them, for a while now. Ever since that night Aaron talked about what he'd want while they were lying down under the stars. It was right after they had taken Adam Barton's quad for a ride they weren't supposed to and found themselves afterwards high with exhilaration, running around, chasing each other, pushing and pulling before finally falling side by side onto the ground, onto their backs, panting and laughing. Somewhere in the middle of some meadow, not too far from the village, but far enough for them. And what carefree laughter it was they were sharing, like nothing existed but them. When they inevitably became too exhausted and their laughter was gradually subsiding, the effect of the starry sky above them slowly, unobtrusively sinking in, Robert felt for a second like maybe there really wasn't anything else other than them.

"You know we could take off right now," he said, "take Adam's bike and go on some wild adventure. Never turn around to go back." _Because I don't need anyone else but you_ , but he didn't add that part aloud. He didn't think he had to add anything. But even if he did, he couldn't.

"And do what exactly? Go where?"

 _Who cares?_ Robert wanted to say. _As long as we're together._ It wasn't strictly true, those words that were on the tip of his tongue. He couldn't really take off without a care. Some things did matter to him at Emmerdale, even if he didn't care to admit that. Like Victoria and her big eyes which shone up at him whenever her big brother managed not to screw up, when he did succeed in being there for her. Like their mum's grave in the village cemetery, which he always did his best not to glance over at if he had to pass by the graveyard on a day when he couldn't go visit her. But his dad's leathering was somehow still scorched on his skin. And ever since he had started feeling something more for Aaron, the memory of it had become more vivid than it had been in a long time. The memory of fire. The sting of betrayal. A confirmation of being unloved and unlovable. The fear that this was Robert's reality had always been there, between him and his father, ever since Andy had come along. And after that beating, the confirmation of it was imprinted onto Robert in scars. It was imprinted in physical ones, that had healed and faded away, and it also was in the ones that hadn't.

"Dunno. Where would you want to go?"

"If I could go anywhere?" Aaron asked and Robert felt a real hunger to know the answer, to get at what made the best friend of his younger sister tick. This guy who shouldn't have caught his eyes and his interest, but did. Robert craved to know what mattered to him. He got a non-committed shrug. "Probably someplace where I can get as many pints as I wanna."

Robert snorted. He believed that, it was such an Aaron answer. All the same, he wanted more. "And where do you see that being?"

There was silence for a few long minutes. Robert feared that in his insistent pursuit for a more meaningful reply, he revealed something that was too much for Aaron to accept. Lying on the ground without facing each other somehow only made it worse. But then he could hear that voice again, lower this time. More open, was what Robert was immediately thinking for some reason.

"I dunno. 'Spose I always fancied seeing a bit of the world. Ya know, maybe go party in Ibiza. Heard those outings are alright. Maybe France, wouldn't mind picking up a bit of the language. Try out the local food. But where I'd really wanna go... If I could, I'd go to Ireland. Find my little sister there. I'd get her to come back with me here. To stay."

"You have a little sister?" Robert raised his head and upper torso, turning to the side to lean on his arm so he could see Aaron's face. Tough exterior that he always had on, Aaron hadn't talked much about the family he had outside of Emmerdale. All Robert was clued in on was that Aaron's dad, at whatever point after splitting up with Chas, had got himself a new wife, somewhere far from their village.

"Mmmmm. She must be getting big now. You believe she'd never met Clyde? I bet she'd love being 'round him. Or Chas or Paddy, she hasn't met them either. Yeah, I'd just want her to have them too. Like I got 'em. Just wanna... have all of 'em here together."

And for the first time, Robert was sure of exactly what it was he had been feeling for Aaron, even if he couldn't say that either.

This gruff guy, there was every reason to be fascinated by him. He looked so rough to some people. Simple, grumpy, sometimes proper rude. Robert, though, he saw Aaron for who the guy really was. The most beautiful person Robert had ever seen. And yeah, attractive as all hell too (those blue piercing eyes. The cheekbones. That bit of scruff and the idea of what it would feel like against one's own skin. Those insanely kissable lips. Robert had stared and stared when he thought he could get away with it and had not gotten his fill yet). But even if Aaron were completely disfigured, Robert would have still thought of him in the same terms. Aaron's beauty ran beneath the surface. Made Robert's skin prickle with a different kind of fire.

It surprised him in a sense. Clearly, he should have wanted one of those White sisters way more, the ones who lived in the big house with all the expensive clothes and that attitude that said they knew they were better than everyone else, being the unofficial village royalty. Those girls that his father would not wince at if Robert were to bring them round. His dad might even pass him a fiver on the down low and instructed Robert in a whisper to show them a Sugden can give them a real good time. Maybe, maybe his dad would even proudly pat him on the back, as if for a job well done. And Robert would get to feel what Andy always had. Loved. Appreciated.

But Aaron. 

Aaron's eyes were as bright as the stars above them, if not brighter even. And his lips looked softer and more inviting than ever. Most of all, Aaron's words, his heart which gave birth to those words, got to Robert like a kick in the guts in how real they were. In how they echoed things that hurt inside him, too. They left Robert in awe and wanting. 

He couldn't say any of that to Aaron, of course. Just mention 'soft' and the bloke in the same sentence and he would probably blow up. It was alright, though. Robert could do better than speaking, anyway.

He leaned in. Slowly. Caught the look forming in Aaron's eyes. Shock. Confusion. Something that may have verged on disgust. Which was why Robert went in so slow. If Aaron wanted to, he could easily stop him. Could have pushed him away. Hit him if he were truly angry. If that would be what Aaron resorts to, if he decided on physical retaliation, Robert couldn't stop that. He was fully aware that in that case, he would end up being a total bloodied mess. He wasn't sure what made his heart race faster, the excitement of maybe getting to kiss Aaron in a second, or the threat of what may happen to him if he wasn't allowed to...

Their lips touched.

It was tender and electric at once.

It was heady and too much, Robert wanted to get more of it, but it was impossible for him to contain all he was feeling already. He pulled back.

"What was that?" Aaron still looked caught somewhere between utter surprise and upset. But he let Robert kiss him and there was a truth in that, a most precious truth.

Robert smiled and responded so quietly, he could barely hear it himself. "It's called a kiss, you idiot."

Aaron's furrowed brow showed no change. "It's well weird, is what it is." 

"Oh." Robert looked at Aaron closely, trying to decipher the smallest of clues he might find in the unflinching expression. "Should I not do that again, then?"

Aaron's mouth settled into a pressed line and for a second, Robert thought he might have gotten it all wrong after all.

Then Aaron shrugged nonchalantly. "Free country this, you can do whatever ya like." 

So Robert did.

They didn't talk about it after that night. They didn't define anything. Just met in closed barns and open fields. _Places where the wind takes you_ , Robert mused one day. He knows too well the wind tends to take you when you haven't got a place to call your own. He thought something similar before, but those weeks they spend cultivating a new form of togetherness, one uniquely their own that he couldn't define to anyone else using regular terms, they cement it for Robert. That somehow, when Aaron's there, all of those spots they hang out in feel a bit more like they are actually his, too. Theirs. Bigger than any of the houses in Emmerdale, grander than the most expensive of clothes or the fanciest of parties. It's a mixture of belonging and freedom that leaves Robert more intoxicated on Aaron than he could have imagined one person is capable of ever being.

It's the same ritual every time. They meet up. They talk bollocks. They drink a bit of alcohol if one of them has managed to knick some. They pretend to be more drunk than they actually are. It makes the tense silences they fall into easier. As well as the kissing, which they always fill those silent moments with. 

But today something must have happened. They're in the barn and practically glued to each other already. Aaron lets his lips be parted by Robert's own, but as soon as anything more is being introduced, he puts an end to it. "Stop pushing your tongue in!" he bit back after Robert couldn't give up the chase so easily. That saw Robert raising his voice with frustration, blurting out the first answer that came to mind. An echo of their first night of covert explorings. As upset as Robert is at being denied, there's a thrill quickly follows once a certain realisation awakens inside him. That this is the most Aaron had ever acknowledged out loud what they've been doing. Robert hates that they're yelling at each other. He's annoyed that Aaron's denying him access. And somewhere in that anger, he's weirdly grateful too.

"That's not how a kiss is meant to be!" Aaron snarls and Robert can feel his temper further rising.

"Oh, yeah? What is it supposed to be like, Mr. expert? You never seemed to have complaints before!" 

Aaron seems to go almost pale at that. He grabs at Robert's shirt, twists it in his gripping fist. Time to brace for that punch, Sugden. It's been a long time coming. Robert squeezes his eyes shut for it, readies himself. Accepts it, because it's been waiting to catch up with him since he was fifteen.

No blow lands.

Instead, when Robert opens his eyes again, he meets Aaron's raised eyebrow.

"Mate, you thought I was about to knock you out?" The questioning tone throws Robert for a loop. " _Why?_ "

"Weren't you?" Robert asks in return and there's a pause long enough to tell him he wasn't completely off. It might have happened and they are both aware of that now. Aaron shrugs and leans back against a wooden beam. Without processing it too much, Robert naturally takes the opposite beam to lean his back on. Not too far to their side, the bran opens to a green field, washed across with hues signifying the beginning of dusk.

"Cain would have done that for sure." Aaron offers, as if that explains everything.

"Well, lucky thing then, it wasn't him I was about to be kissing."

Aaron's gruff exhale isn't one of amusement, like Robert was hoping for.

"It's a joke, Aaron! Don't tell me you think I'm actually interested. Bloody hell, Cain's too old for anything."

"Them White sisters aren't, though." Aaron's voice only sounds calm. Robert thinks this is probably the most disturbed Aaron had allowed himself to come across. Certainly since they have known each other, possibly ever.

"What do they have to do with anything?"

"That your idea of being honest? Vic said you fancied one of 'em birds."

"Aaron," Robert isn't sure why, despite the frustration and exasperation even that he's feeling, it doesn't come out in the way he expresses himself. Instead, he finds he wants Aaron to trust him so much, to be assured about how Robert feels, that he's at his gentlest. "Vic has no idea who I actually fancy. I love her, but she has no clue. For God's sake, she thinks she's the only reason why I bother with you. That you and I are nothing but mates."

Aaron lets out a breath and looks up, as if he's looking for someone there, hiding behind the roof beams of the barn. If Aaron hadn't, Robert reckons he might have seen a tear or two forming in those painfully clear blue eyes.

"Aren't we, though? Just mates?"

Robert gets that, even though Aaron's looking away, he's trained on every wrong signal he may get. "You're not just a mate to me. And I wouldn't want you to be."

Aaron's shoulders fall almost imperceptibly. Like he doesn't have to put so much effort into holding himself up anymore. Robert's glad that some tension has dissipated there, if not all of it. 

"Blokes aren't supposed to be anything more than just mates."

Robert looks down. "My dad would agree with you." _Don't cry, Sugden. Don't let your mind go there and don't you dare fucking cry._

He feels Aaron's warmth right in front of him, impossibly close, even before his brain catches on to the fact that the fella's moved in on him. When he raises his head back up, Aaron's eyes in the dusk light take Robert's breath away. The colours there. _The emotion in them._

"Do you need me to rough him up for ya?" Aaron's hand comes up and is lightly holding the side of Robert's face, like it's trying to offer comfort and is scared to at the same time. For such a chav question, it's wildly sweet. Probably the sweetest thing Robert had ever experienced and he finds himself laughing, holding back onto Aaron, wanting to make all of the uncertainty between them disappear.

"Fuck what my dad would say. It feels right when we're together. I don't know what it's meant to be, but we are more than mates. And that's how I want us to be. Just us. No one else."

Aaron nods slowly, then kisses him. Lets lips part and tongues slip against each other.

It's not easy with Aaron. Every single step for them seems to be a struggle. It's also not looking like that's about to change anytime soon. But when Aaron smiles at him, when they kiss, he's sure. It doesn't have to be easy to be the best thing Robert's ever had.


End file.
